BizTimes Milwaukee | March 20, 2017

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HEROIN AT WORK

OPIOID EPIDEMIC CAN SPREAD INTO THE OFFICE

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

POLICY CHOICES AN IMPORTANT PART OF DRUG TESTING PROGRAMS MLG CAPITAL EXPANDS WITH NEW MARKETS, PRIVATE EQUITY STRATEGY PERMYT SMOOTHES MUNICIPAL PERMIT PROCESS

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Real-Time Monitoring

inside

March 20 - April 2, 2017 HIGHLIGHT S Now 4 Grand Appliance and TV to move HQ from Illinois to Sturtevant.

Coffee Break

5

A conversation with Chad Griswold of Rinka Chung Architecture.

Made in Milwaukee

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Customer diversity shapes Molded Dimensions’ outlook.

Getting There

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Matt Frank of Robertson Ryan & Associates.

Real Estate Spotlight

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MLG Capital expands with new markets, private equity strategy.

S TR ATE GIE S Innovation Jim Lindell 26 Management Jo Gorissen 27 Negotiations Cary Silverstein 28

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S P E C I A L R E P O R T:

HE A LTH CA R E & WE LLNE S S

COV E R S T ORY

Heroin at work Opioid epidemic can spread into the office — photo by Erich Schroeder Photography

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In addition to the cover story, coverage includes advice on employer policies regarding drug testing and a recap of the employee happiness tips shared by speakers at the 2017 BizTimes Wellness Summit.

BIZ CONNECTIONS Nonprofit Spotlight 29 Personnel File 30 Glance at Yesteryear 32 BizTimes Around Town 33 The Last Word 34

V I S I T B I Z T I M E S . C O M F O R A D D I T I O N A L S T O R I E S , D A I LY U P D AT E S & E - N E W S L E T T E R S Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . 414-336-7120 Advertising . . . . . . . . . 414-336-7112 Subscriptions . . . . . . . 414-277-8181 Reprints . . . . . . . . . . . . 414-277-8181

Founded in 1995, BizTimes Milwaukee provides news and operational insights for CEOs, presidents, owners and other top level executives at companies in southeastern Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Kenosha, Walworth and Sheboygan counties).

Subscription Customer Service: BizTimes Milwaukee, 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120, USA, Phone (414) 277-8181, Fax (414) 277-8191, circulation@biztimes.com, www.biztimes.com

BizTimes Milwaukee (ISSN 1095-936X & USPS # 017813) Volume 22, Number 26, March 20 - April 2, 2017. BizTimes Milwaukee is published bi-weekly, except two consecutive weeks in December (the second and third weeks of December) by BizTimes Media LLC at 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120, USA. Basic annual subscription rate is $42.00. Single copy price is $3.25. Back issues are $5.00 each. Periodicals postage paid at Milwaukee, WI and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to BizTimes Milwaukee, 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120. Entire contents copyright 2017 by BizTimes Media LLC. All rights reserved.

W E ’ R E B U I LT TO B E

W I SCO N S I N ’S BA N K F O R B U S I N E SS™ We’re proud to be Wisconsin’s Bank: built here, for here, with no plans of leaving. We’re not only experts at the banking services we provide to businesses across the area; we’re experts at this area. We know the businesses we serve and understand and appreciate

that they are vital to the success and health of Wisconsin. We know the challenges— and satisfaction—that comes with running a business in this area and we’re honored that the who’s who of Wisconsin, depend on the who’s who of banking.

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leading edge NOW

Grand Appliance and TV to move HQ from Illinois to Sturtevant

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rand Appliance and TV plans to move its headquarters from Zion, Illinois to Sturtevant, potentially bringing 140 jobs to Racine County over three years, according to a release from the Racine County Economic Development Corp.

The company plans to build a 137,000-square-foot facility that will consolidate its corporate headquarters and distribution facilities in Zion and New Berlin. The move will bring 120 jobs to Sturtevant initially and the company plans to add another 22 new jobs in the coming years.

The building will be located on an 11-acre site in the southern portion of the Renaissance Business Park off of Highway 20, just east of I-94.

Grand Appliance currently operates 20 retail locations with 300 employees across Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.

“Southeast Wisconsin provides an ideal location that supports Grand Appliance and TV’s growth plans,” said

Mark Reckling, Grand Appliance and TV president. “We are grateful to the Village of Sturtevant, Racine County, WEDC and RCEDC for their combined efforts to support this project.”

Sturtevant will provide $450,000 in tax increment financing for the project.

Mark Maley, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., said the agency is working with the company and is still in negotiations on possible incentives.

Racine County officials will consider a $200,000 forgivable loan for the project, according to Laura Million, RCEDC business development manager.

“Grand Appliance joins the growing list of distribution companies, including West Logistics and UNFI, choosing Racine County for its strategic location and workforce advantages,” said Racine County executive Jonathan Delagrave.

“This project is just another example of our commitment to partnering with local governments and the State of Wisconsin

to welcome new companies seeking a location in the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor.”

Grand Appliance and TV is just the latest Illinois company to announce plans to move operations to southeastern Wisconsin.

Colbert Packaging Corp., a Lake Forest, Illinois-based manufacturer of cartons and boxes, plans to relocate its flexographic packaging operations to Kenosha, potentially bringing 100 jobs to the state. The company will move to a 173,000-square-foot facility at 9949 58th Place in the Business Park of Kenosha.

The industrial spec building was developed by Milwaukee-based Zilber Property Group in 2015.

Vonco Products LLC, a flexible packaging and promotional products manufacturer, will move its headquarters from Lake Villa, Illinois to a new building that will be constructed in the Salem Business Park in the Town of Salem in Kenosha County. The company will be the first manufacturer in the 65-acre

business park. Vonco will move to an 80,500-square-foot building and plans to invest more than $4 million in equipment at the facility and create 86 jobs over the next three years.

Some Illinois companies also are adding operations in southeastern Wisconsin.

Chicago-based baked goods company Gold Standard Baking Inc. plans to open a facility in Pleasant Prairie’s LakeView Corporate Park that will employ about 300 people. The company plans to establish the facility in a 204,387-squarefoot speculative industrial building built recently on a 12-acre property at 10490 88th Ave. The company would occupy the entire building, manufacturing ready-to-eat bakery items and getting them ready for shipment to customers and offsite warehousing. The first year, Gold Standard plans to employ 90 people at the facility and eventually plans to have about 300 employees once the site is at full utilization.

——Arthur Thomas

SOCI AL M E D I A S T R AT E GI ES

Don’t worry about going viral; just make the right video Video marketing has never been more popular. Your social media strategy demands it, but I’m here to take some pressure off.

You don't need a viral video.

This is a great city, and you can hire any number of Milwaukee video production companies to create an awesome video for your business. However, none of them can guarantee it'll go viral.

As a video producer, I don’t have any control over that phenomenon. I have the power to create a good video. I have the power to tell a great story. But I do not have the power to make someone share that video.

The good news: a viral video doesn't ensure business success. For every “Will it blend?” (the viral blender infomercial) success story there’s a "Carrie" failure. The 2013 horror film reboot promotion went viral, with more than 67 million views to-date, but the 4

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movie was a box office flop.

It’s more important to produce videos focused on the “right” audience, instead of one that reaches millions who might not be your customers.

Focus on your viewers when you produce videos. Who is our audience? What is going to appeal to them? How can we help serve them with our content? All questions you should be asking before you start shooting.

Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, one of our customers, does an awesome job with this.

Its videos are incredibly powerful and effective marketing tools. LSS officials show the videos to people who might need the services, as well as potential donors. In short,

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they show the videos to the people they most want to connect with.

See... you don't need a viral video. You need a marketing video plan that focuses on your core audience. That’s a better recipe for video success.

——Tony Gnau is founder and chief storytelling officer at Milwaukeebased T60 Productions.

leading edge COFF E E B R E A K

POLITIC AL BEAT

Pence says Trump will be ‘best friend’ to businesses

BY WISPOLITICS.COM

What was the smartest thing your company did in the past year?

“We have added some very talented and experienced studio members to our already remarkable team in the past year. We consider the most valuable component of architecture to be great ideas, and everyone in our studio contributes to make the projects inventive and unique. The livability and vibrancy of Milwaukee, along with the exciting projects that are happening in the city, are attracting architects from other areas to make the move.”

What’s new at your company?

“We continue to push the realm of virtual design experiences in architecture, whether it’s new rendering/animation software or virtual reality walk-throughs of the building models.

Almost everything in our office is modeled in 3-D before it is built, and we’re always upgrading our virtual tools.”

What’s the hottest trend in your industry?

“We tend to think about this in the context of the business sectors we serve as they are constantly changing. Whether it is financial services, restaurants, residential or any other project type, each project is an opportunity to learn from the last and to innovate on the next one.

We find that by deeply understanding the goals or challenges our clients face, design solutions can be directed to meet their objectives, often in unexpected ways.”

Do you have a business mantra?

“Deliver exceptional service to our clients.

We’ve intentionally focused our business on

creating relationships and doing great work rather than frequently chasing specific project opportunities. This has led to a high percentage of repeat work from some of the most influential companies in the city. And it’s fun for us – we enjoy the relationships as much as the projects.”

From a business standpoint, who do you look up to?

“I’ve been fortunate to have several brilliant mentors in my career, but my business partner Matt Rinka has been the most influential. His balance of business savvy and being a great architect is exceptional. The company is celebrating its 11-year anniversary and has steadily grown each year.”

What was the best advice you ever received?

“I recall interviewing my grandfather for a grade school project and I asked him a similar question.

He answered with the golden rule – do to others what you want them to do to you. The profound simplicity of this has always stuck with me.”

What do you like to do in your free time?

“Everything outdoors.

Hunting, fishing, boating, skiing, biking or just a backyard BBQ. Milwaukee and Wisconsin are so blessed with outdoor recreation opportunities in all seasons. My latest interest is salmon fishing on Lake Michigan – watching the sun rise over the lake to the east with a stunning view of the city skyline to the west (and the chance of catching a big fish), all within a few minutes of my house, underscores how unique and special our city is.”

Chad Griswold Principal Rinka Chung Architecture 756 N. Milwaukee St., Milwaukee www.rinkachung.com Industry: Architecture Employees: 35 Family: Wife: Renee.

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In a recent speech at a Blain’s Farm & Fleet distribution center in Janesville, Vice President Mike Pence promised the Trump adminPence istration will grow the economy “faster than ever before,” calling the president “the best friend Wisconsin businesses will ever have.”

Pence spoke following a listening session with local business leaders and farmers.

The former Indiana governor said he and Trump “both know the sacrifices” business owners need to make, recalling when he was 14 years old and worked as an attendant at the gas station chain his father ran.

“When small business is strong, America is strong, and we’re going to fight every day for small business,” Pence said.

Pence said Trump already is getting results, highlighting Ford Motor Co.’s decision to scrap a plant in Mexico and instead expand in Michigan. Trump signing off on the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines will add thousands of jobs, Pence said, and companies around the country are announcing “they’re keeping jobs and creating new ones.”

He pointed out Harley-Davidson Inc. officials visited the White House and that Trump wants to help grow companies like Harley and Farm & Fleet that are the “engines of our economy.”

Pence dismissed the protesters and activists at Congressional town halls opposing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. “The American people know Obamacare has failed and Obamacare must go,” Pence said.

In response to Pence’s visit, Rep. Debra Kolste (DJanesville) criticized the GOP for taking swipes at the Affordable Care Act “without a viable alternative,” as well as misleading constituents into thinking Obamacare is “in a death spiral.”

- Wispolitics.com is a media partner of BizTimes Milwaukee.

BY TH E NU MBERS

$100 million

Gardner Denver filed forms to begin the process for an initial public offering and plans to sell $100 million worth of its stock. The company wants to raise funds to help pay down its $2.78 billion in debt.

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leading edge ON TH E C ALEN D AR

MA DE I N M I LWA U K E E

The list of industries served by Molded Dimensions Inc. is long, with nearly 60 listed on the company’s website. Walk the floor in the company’s Port Washington plants and the diversity of customers is clear.

Around one corner, there are parts for a fire extinguisher; around another, there are turf care components.

Look elsewhere, and there are parts for medical fields and oil and gas exploration.

“For the size business we are, we are incredibly diversified,” said Michael Katz, president of Molded Dimensions.

The materials – rubber or polyurethane – and the volumes – low or medium – are the constants.

Having a high level of diversification is part of Molded Dimensions’ strategy to “create a place where great people choose to work,” said Katz, who bought

ARTHUR THOMAS (414) 336-7123 | Twitter: @arthur8823 arthur.thomas@biztimes.com

duced efficiently, Katz said productivity is driven by the company culture and a 37 percent minority stake in ownership for employees. That’s not to say metrics aren’t used; rubber molding machines prominently display target and actual production numbers and other processes have their own measures, with the goal of handling a part the fewest possible times.

“Everybody who comes to work today wants to know how well they worked today and if they can’t look and measure themselves, that’s not fair,” Katz said, adding metrics are more for individual employees to know their performance. It also gives those in production an indication if they should go to their supervisor with concerns about how something is designed or set up.

“Problems bubble up when you’re given that feedback,” he said.

The result is two focused factories supported by overarching sales, engineering, accounting and IT departments. Molded Dimensions also has a tooling division located nearby, along with a warehouse for its GlocalSource division.

In the early 2000s, nearly every customer the company called on was asking for work to be completed in low-cost countries, Katz said. Molded Dimensions started GlocalSource as a way to capture some of that business, partnering with Chinese manufacturers and a joint venture in India to source certain parts.

The program represents about 10 to 15 percent of the business and usually has about 20 projects a year. It works particularly well for easy-to-ship parts made with high labor content from relatively simple materials.

Customers have occasionally sought to get products that don’t fit the GlocalSource criteria, but Katz said it is important to stay focused. The benefit for the customer is the opportunity to draw on Molded Dimensions’ design and engineering expertise for parts that may be made overseas anyway.

“We’re about taking what the customer’s idea is, whether it’s a napkin sketch or a 3D model, and feeding back to them ways that we can make that part … the most robust way with the most robust tool for the least amount of cost,” Katz said.

the company with his wife, Linda, in 2001.

The strategy recognizes people want to work at a place that’s growing, but as it does for any company, diversifying allows Molded Dimensions to weather economic cycles in various industries.

“It turns out that great people don’t like to work at a place that’s growing ridiculously, because they kind of know that lots of times that tempers and so we focus on steady, good growth,” Katz said.

The business still goes after growth, with a particular focus on new product introduction. Molded Dimensions builds about 120 new molds each year and is nearing a point where it will add additional engineering help in the next year.

“We want to be the best at new production of any of your suppliers, because we do think that 95 percent of quality and efficiency is defined at product concept,” Katz said.

Keeping all of the work straight is actually easier than it might seem, partially because of Steve Kultgen pours polyurethane how the company is physically set over a mold at Molded Dimensions’ up. Rubber-related work is done in Port Washington facility. one building, while another building on the main campus houses all of the polyurethane work. Katz said it would have been less expensive to add on to the rubber building when the company expanded in 2008, but a separate building keeps each division focused.

While it might be tempting to turn to metrics and data to assure the hundreds of different parts are pro-

Molded Dimensions Inc. 701 W. Sunset Road, Port Washington Industry: Molded rubber and polyurethane parts Employees: 95 www.moldeddimensions.com

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APR

Customer diversity shapes Molded Dimensions’ outlook

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M&A Forum BizTimes Media will host the 2017 M&A Forum on Friday, April 21, from 7:30 to 11 a.m. at the Milwaukee Marriott Downtown hotel, 625 N. Milwaukee St., Milwaukee. The annual event examines different business exit strategies, including recapitalizations, employee stock ownership plans, management buyouts, sales to private equity firms, mergers with strategic partners and more. Cost is $45. For more information or to register, visit biztimes.com/maforum.

For a complete listing of all area events, visit the event section of our website.

www.biztimes.com/events

BOOK REVIEW

‘The Nuts and Bolts of Leadership: Getting the Job Done’ In “The Nuts and Bolts of Leadership: Getting the Job Done,” Jim Bohn, a Milwaukee-based change management executive, uses his four decades of experience in the field to provide a leadership training guide that is easy to read and applicable to many fields.

Bohn worked in change management at Johnson Controls Inc. from 2006 to 2013. He launched his own Graftonbased change management and organizational transformation company, ProAxios, in 2014.

Based in theory and practice, the book is divided into three sections: self-leadership, team leadership and organizational leadership, with attention paid to behaviors and techniques that can be immediately applied in daily work.

“The Nuts and Bolts of Leadership” serves as a resource for any leader determined to improve his or her ability to get things done.

The book is available at 800ceoread.com for $11.99.

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leading edge NON P RO F IT N E W S

THE GOOD LIFE

Goodwill to hire up to 150 in Mount Pleasant

Oh, say can you see?

When Joseph Scala isn’t traveling all over the state in his role as the commercial sales and marketing manager at Menomonee Falls-based Monroe Equipment Inc., he’s singing songs.

But not in the shower or in his living room.

Scala sings before crowds of thousands. And he has a specialty: the national anthem.

Around five or six years ago, when Scala was working in Wausau, he was active in the local chamber of commerce. Some of the other members Joseph Scala sings the national anthem at a Memorial Day event had heard him sing before – somein 2016. thing he liked to do as a hobby – and asked him if he would like to sing the national anthem to open a Wisconsin Woodchucks Since then, he’s performed at dozens of charity baseball game. The Woodchucks, like the Lakeshore events, baseball games and other events across Chinooks and the Kenosha Kingfish, play in the the state.

Northwoods League.

In 2014, he sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” for Scala agreed, and friends and family members a sellout crowd at the Kohl Center in Madison before took videos of his performance that were posted on a University of Wisconsin men’s basketball game.

YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn. “It’s a great honor,” Scala said of being asked to “The requests started coming in after the post sing. “You have a debt of gratitude to sing well.” made its rounds,” Scala said.

Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin Inc. will lease a 248,000-square-foot facility in Mount Pleasant to house its manufacturing operations and plans to add as many as 150 seasonal and full-time jobs over the next few years.

The manufacturing facility, located at 1445 International Drive, will be leased from Milwaukee-based Zilber Property Group Ltd. and will house light assembly, packaging, supply chain and inventory management operations. The building is currently 132,000 square feet, but Zilber is planning to break ground on a 116,000-square-foot expansion this spring that is expected to be complete before the end of 2017.

Goodwill’s manufacturing operations currently are located at 1630 Enterprise Drive in Sturtevant. The company will move around 300 jobs from that location to the new facility in Mount Pleasant in late 2017 and early 2018.

Once the manufacturing operations leave, the Sturtevant location will house Goodwill’s retail branch, which includes retail support personnel as well as e-commerce and secondary markets teams.

——Ben Stanley

——Ben Stanley

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leading edge G ET T I NG TH E R E

BR EA K ING G ROUN D

Matt Frank Robertson Ryan & Associates 330 E. Kilbourn Ave., Ste. 650, Milwaukee Age: 28 Education: Bachelor of business administration in finance, Marquette University Previous position: Commercial lines underwriter at Liberty Mutual Insurance Current position: Insurance advisor

»» Why did you decide to take on this new position?

“I worked at Liberty Mutual as my first job out of college, spent five years there, really liked the company, but wanted to try something new. As an agent, it’s a little more challenging, but there are a lot of benefits. It’s a unique structure where technically I work for myself, so I have a lot of freedom and flexibility there – I don’t really have a boss telling me I need to meet my sales goals. It’s really just holding myself accountable to be successful.” »» What is your next career goal?

“I’ll definitely be doing this for the remainder of my career. My father and grandfather have worked at this agency, so that’s kind of how I had an in here and it’s just a place where a lot of agents come and work the rest of their careers. My next goal is to be partner, but that’s definitely seven to 10 years (away).”

Bucks apartments Milwaukee-based development firm Royal Capital Group LLC will build a 90-unit apartment complex adjacent to a parking structure being built for the Milwaukee Bucks arena in downtown Milwaukee. The apartments will be located along the eastern side of North Sixth Street, between West Juneau Avenue and West McKinley Avenue, on the west side of the parking structure. Construction is expected to begin in the fall, when the parking structure is complete.

——Corrinne Hess

The future is here. And it’s being built company by company.

We’re looking at you! Apply today and be recognized for your achievements!

Go to WWW.MMAC.ORG/F50.HTML to apply.

Know a company that deserves recognition? Nominate them and we’ll do all the digging!

Media Partner

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DEADLINE TO APPLY: Friday, March 31, 2017 Questions? contact Alexis Deblitz at 414.287.4130 or adeblitz@mmac.org

Winners are based on objective criteria and all information is kept strictly confidential. If your company meets four basic criteria, complete the online application and put your company in the running for the 2017 Future 50.

The Future 50 Awards Program is a service of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) and its Council of Small Business Executives (COSBE).

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ON LIN E POLL

Re: Drug prices “I am not a big fan of price controls. Remember when President Nixon’s attempt at price controls failed miserably? But, in the case of Big Pharma, there may be no other answer.”

- John Torinus, Serigraph Inc.

Re: Smaller Wisconsin cities “Why are cities of all sizes important? In 47 of 50 states, including Wisconsin, they generate the majority of all economic output. In Wisconsin, cities of 50,000 or more account for 73 percent of the state’s jobs. Those cities must become magnets for talent in order for Wisconsin to compete.”

-Tom Still, Wisconsin Technology Council

Yes: 68%

Re: Senior health and wellness JobLines, a joint initiative among the Milwaukee County Transit System, Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin and Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope to connect Milwaukee residents with suburban job opportunities, recently hosted a breakfast. Primary discussion topics included employer hiring needs, transit solutions to bridge the gap between workers and jobs, and a job fair.

Pleasant Prairie plans to buy 458 acres along I-94 from Abbott Labs for $37.5 million to create a business park. Is this a good idea?

“The health care model is failing and seniors are living longer, creating a vicious cycle resulting in spiraling health care costs that are generally unaffected by productivity or quality of life criteria. We need a strategy to keep our seniors active and functional within their lifestyles and free of illnesses.”

- Patricia Lenius, PJL & Associates

No: 32%

For additional stories and daily updates, visit our website at...

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Expand your perspectives.

Optimize your decisions.

Friday, April 28, 2017 7:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Exchange ideas with other CEOs and business leaders.

See renowned speaker and author Patrick Lencioni address the untapped advantage of organizational health. He’ll dive into the 4 steps to achieving long-term success with a special focus on executive team cohesion and alignment.

Limited Seating! Register now at tecmidwest.com/leadership

Hyatt Regency Milwaukee 333 W. Kilbourn Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53203

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innovations

Kyle Konieczka presented Permyt to the community at a Startup Milwaukee EMERGE last month at PKWARE.

Permyt smoothes municipal permit process

G

rowing up in a family with three generations of plumbers, Kyle Konieczka knows the industry well.

From a young age, he helped his father and grandfather with their plumbing business and eventually noticed various inefficiencies in the con-

He set out to fix this problem and after three or four years of developing his idea, Konieczka in 2015 founded West Allisbased startup Permyt, a shared services platform that generates permits instantly.

The service allows contractors to obtain permits through an automated app instead of through a municipality’s manual permit application process.

“It takes an average of three to five business days in the U.S. to get a permit,” Konieczka said. “It should take three to five seconds.”

It is illegal for plumbers, electricians, HVAC professionals and remodelers to work without a permit. But because the

MAREDITHE MEYER P: (414) 336-7115 E: maredithe.meyer@biztimes.com Twitter: @maredithemeyer

tracting industry. One flaw, in particular, stood out to Konieczka as the worst: the process to obtain municipal permits.

Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin (414) 931-7400 feedingamericawi.org

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Permyt West Allis Innovation: Instant municipal permit app permyt.com

application process and the wait time to receive the permit is time-consuming and arduous, contractors often neglect the city’s permit requirement and choose to work illegally.

“Contractors are not going to spend more time getting the permit than they would be doing the work,” Konieczka said. “So they defy the law and they defy regulation.”

Each year, cities lose the revenue permits would generate and contractors waste time and costs on the inefficient permit process. When contractors choose not to obtain a permit, they risk unemployment, losing their contractor’s license and fines from the state and city.

With Permyt’s smartphone app, a contractor provides city, permit and payment information and submits the application. The service then validates the legal requirements, processes the payment and assigns a permit authorization number for the contractor’s work.

City clerks can view all contractor in-

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formation through Permyt’s municipality portal–allowing the city to schedule inspections and pass or fail work. The Permyt app uses push notifications to alert the contractor and the homeowner of any changes in the permit’s status. Homeowners can also request and schedule inspections and search city permit records with the app.

“No one in the world is doing this,” Konieczka said. “There is no instant permit, there is no shared services platform…we are the first.”

Permyt will be ready to launch its product 90 days after it makes an official agreement with West Allis – the startup’s tentative first client. According to Konieczka, Permyt currently is working with the city to make an official agreement and West Allis Mayor Dan Devine has voiced his support of integrating the technology.

From there, Permyt will approach suburbs of large cities in its 21 target markets. The startup plans to eventually partner with larger cities, but only after it has first partnered with the city’s surrounding, smaller municipalities.

After Permyt partners with its first city, the product launch for every additional city will take only 30 days or less.

With a 20 percent transaction fee, Konieczka predicts that in 10 years, Permyt will make $100 million in revenue.

Unlike other software companies that provide municipal services at a city’s significant expense, Permyt charges much less, he said.

“We built this for (cities) for nothing and we host it, we enhance it, we fix it … we just charge a transaction fee,” Konieczka said.

Recently, Permyt attracted interest from outside investors and launched an equity round lasting 30 days. The startup plans to use a large portion of those investment funds for product development.

The interest was sparked after Konieczka pitched the innovation at Startup Milwaukee’s monthly EMERGE event in February. Since the event, Permyt has formed a network of other stakeholders, including potential municipality clients, other startups, interested investors and contractors, Konieczka said.

“We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have garnered such a positive response,” Konieczka said. “The inherent challenge in front of us is to consider all of these, oftentimes paradoxical, recommendations and forge the path that is right for Permyt.” n

PRESENTS:

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES Keys to a smart sale, purchase or hold REGISTER TODAY:

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M&A Forum | April 21, 2017 | Milwaukee Marriott Downtown | 7:00 - 11:00AM The time comes when company owners and executives need to prepare for that next big move. Whether selling, buying or keeping your business, you need the right tools and knowledge to make this critical decision and maximize your outcome.

Join BizTimes Media and our experts for this valuable session that addresses the key concerns of deciding your company’s future.

Keynote: Ajita Rajendra Chairman and Chief Executive Officer A. O. Smith Since 1996, A. O. Smith has transformed from a highly cyclical, diversified manufacturer primarily serving the automotive industry to a $2.6 billion global water technology company enjoying seven consecutive years of record financial performance. Ajita G. Rajendra will take you through the transformation of this 143-year-old company and discuss the critical role acquisitions made in creating the A. O. Smith of today.

Panel 1: The Uncertainties of Selling and Life after a Sale A focus on the emotional aspects that business owners encounter when selling a company and changes they may face post sale.

Moderator: Andrea Wolf, vice president - commercial banking, Bank Mutual Panelists: • Scott Happ, Chief Executive Officer - Optimal Blue.

• Jim McCormack, Chairman – Diversified Insurance Solutions

Panel 2: The Exit Universe – Know your options A case study look at a seller’s options including strategic buyers, PEG buyers, MBO and ESOP. Moderator: Ann Hanna, managing director, Schenck M&A Solutions Panelists: • Steve Heinen, Managing Director - First Capital Partners • Tom Myers, Shareholder – Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c.

Concurrent breakout sessions:

1.

The Nuts and Bolts of Buying a Business A look at the various considerations involved in acquiring a business, including the stages of an acquisition.

Discussion Leader: Nate Neuberger, shareholder, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c.

2. Run it to sell it What if the time was right and a buyer approached you? A look at the strategies that business owners should employ daily in order to be ready should the market come to them.

Discussion Leader: Mark Bruss, vice president, Bank Mutual

3. Driving Value through Price and Structure A discussion on closing the gap between buyers and sellers - 2017 trends Discussion Leaders: Ann Hanna & Corey Vanderpoel, managing directors, Schenck M&A Solutions

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real estate

The Brookfield-based company bought the third-largest apartment building in the Twin Cities two years ago and is getting higher rents after renovation

MLG Capital expands with new markets, private equity strategy

I

n September 2015, Brookfield-based MLG Capital bought the third-largest apartment building in the Twin Cities, Crossroads at Penn.

After spending $41 million on the property, MLG Capital invested another $1.5 million on the common areas of the building and $20,000 on each of the 698 units to bring them up to date.

After the renovations, CORRINNE HESS P: (414) 336-7116 E: corri.hess@biztimes.com Twitter: @CorriHess

one-bedroom rents at the Crossroads property went from $730 a month to $1,030. Tenants from neighboring apartment complexes built 30 years after the 12

MLG property was constructed began moving to the Crossroads because they were saving $400 a month on rent by living in the older building, even after the rent increase.

For the past 30 years, this is what MLG Capital has done: buy distressed properties, improve them and move on.

“After we fix the problem, we sell,” said Tim Wallen, chief executive officer of MLG Capital. “We’re likely to hold on to multifamily or industrial a little longer, seven to eight years. But with retail or office, we sell. We don’t want to take a chance that we’ll lose a tenant and then be back to square one.”

MLG Capital is a private equity firm that specializes in investing in small and mid-sized private real estate properties. In 2000, the company separated from NAI B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

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MLG Commercial, the Milwaukee-based real estate brokerage firm.

Over the past three years, MLG Capital has hired 100 people, and now has 38 working Wallen in Brookfield and 200 working in Dallas.

The company recently introduced a $150 million fund to new and existing investors, with targeted net returns of 13 to 15 percent per year. MLG Capital is planning to roll out a $300 million fund within the next 24 months that is targeting new investors.

“You can’t buy real estate with the cash to do so, so we are planning to roll out a series of funds every 24 months or so to give investors an opportunity to invest,”

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Wallen said. “We’ve always been buying local; it just ebbs and flows when we have an opportunity to do so. I want people to invest in our community, but to take money away from the stock and bond market to do so.”

MLG Capital also has opened a private equity firm, which is where the majority of the employment growth has come from. The company considers investing in 50 to 55 deals per month across several states. So far, it has invested in eight development deals currently planned or underway in the Minneapolis area.

That’s not to say Wallen and his team would not invest in a development deal locally.

“Alongside our traditional model, we identify the good guys, the (Barry) Mandels and (Mark) Irgens and will invest in

their deals if it makes sense,” Wallen said.

“I have not talked to Mark yet (laughs) but if his deal makes sense for our company, we would invest in it.”

With its last two acquisitions, MLG Capital has turned its focus to Wisconsin.

Like the Minneapolis apartment complex, Wallen saw a similar opportunity recently in Waukesha.

In February, MLG Capital purchased the West Grove Apartments in Waukesha for $36.5 million. The company plans to make upgrades to the 476-unit complex, which hasn’t been renovated since the buildings were constructed about 30 years ago.

The updates MLG is planning in Waukesha include a new community center, a half-court basketball court, shuffleboard and a grilling area.

Once complete, the property, located on just more than 46 acres northwest of West Sunset Drive and West St. Paul Avenue, will be rented for higher rates.

The other Wisconsin deal was in Pewaukee, when MLG Capital purchased

a neglected 147,300-square-foot strip mall on West Capitol Drive for $1.8 million in January.

Unlike the apartment complex, which the company might keep in its portfolio for five to 10 years, MLG Capital will find tenants for the strip mall property and sell it. The Pewaukee property will not stay on MLG Capital’s books for long, Wallen said.

“We only paid about $25 per square foot and I felt safe buying at that price,” Wallen said. “We have identified an asset where I am confident we can solve the problem, which in this case is vacancy.

I’m not wild about retail, but I buy opportunistically.”

Despite MLG Capital celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and Wallen running the company since 2000 (after joining the group in 1989), he said not many people understand what the group does.

“When you get into the wild, Wild West of private real estate investing, it is hard for people to invest in other markets, so we have created a vehicle for people to buy all over the country,” Wallen said. n

biz news State’s unemployment rate dips under 4 percent Wisconsin’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dipped to 3.9 percent in January, the first time it has been under 4 percent since January 2001.

The state unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in December.

Data released by the Department of Workforce Development this month showed the state added a seasonally adjusted total of 5,800 private sector jobs in January. That increase was not outside the margin of error for the Current Employment Statistics survey.

The state added an estimated 5,100 people to its labor force, bringing the total to 3.12 million and pushing the labor force participation rate to 68.1 percent.

The state’s private sector job growth number for December was revised upward by 1,900 to 2,800 jobs. The state added 17,200 private sector jobs in 2016.

The also state touted new estimates showing

Wisconsin has added 200,300 private sector jobs since December 2010.

Harley unveils new Street Rod model Touting it as a middle-weight motorcycle “built to blitz the city streets,” Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson Inc. this month introduced its new Street Rod model.

The model is added to the company’s Street family of models, which also includes the Street 500 and Street 750. The Street Rod comes with a slightly higher price tag, starting at $8,699, compared to the Street 750 at $7,549.

The Street Rod’s engine comes with 18 percent more horsepower and 8 percent more torque than the standard Revolution X 750 on the Street 750. It is also slightly shorter, sits higher and is a little heavier than the Street 750.

The company also said the model comes with “a liberal dose of Harley-Dark Custom styling.”

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cover story

HEROIN AT WORK

OPIOID EPIDEMIC CAN SPREAD INTO THE OFFICE

C

BY BEN STANLEY, staff writer

rimson, opaque, clear. The fluids

Opioids – a broad classification for drugs that act on

fill small tubes in a walk-in freezer

certain sensors in the brain to relieve pain.

at the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office.

They are highly addictive and nationwide, the number of deaths caused by opioid overdose has

The fluids represent all races, but the bodies

been increasing at an alarming rate, particularly

they were taken from are mostly white. Mostly

among a demographic that wouldn’t have been a

male. Their average age: 41 years and 4 months.

large part of the opioid discussion two decades ago.

The bodies once worked in hospitals, sold in-

“The demographics that we’re seeing are more

surance and sat in college classrooms. They fixed

white than black, more men than women and more

machinery in manufacturing plants, painted pic-

middle-aged,” said Sara Schreiber, forensic techni-

tures and played instruments.

cal director at the Milwaukee County Medical Exam-

Then, one day, they were found. Their hearts had stopped beating.

iner’s Office. “They’re typically between 40 and 60 years old. It’s not the young people in their 20s that

Blood was taken, and urine. A clear gel was ex-

some people would suspect. We’ve seen as old as 80.

tracted from a space in the eye between the lens

“These are the working class. This is the group

and retina. Each fluid was put in a vial. The vials

that is still well in the workforce. They’re not re-

were placed in the freezer to await testing.

tired and they’re not fresh out of college looking for

The samples from each body are indistinguishable to the naked eye. But the compounds inside them spell their addictions.

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graphics, all counties, all suburbs.”

And in many cases, the addictions are well hid-

Diamorphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl. w w w.biztimes.com

a job. They come from all walks of life, all demo-

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den – at least for a time.

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health care & wellness AN UPWARDLY MOBILE ADDICTION “Opioid addiction used to be a relatively uncommon thing,” said Dr. Michael Miller, medical director of the Herrington Recovery Center at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc. “There were two populations: people largely in big port cities who were using heroin. Places like Boston, New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, San Francisco. And you had health care professionals who were taking painkillers from hospitals. That was the case from the early 20th century through the 1980s. “(Today) it’s everybody. It’s every ethnic group. It’s men and women, it’s old and young and everybody in between.

One of the most surprising statistics that people didn’t expect to find was that the deaths weren’t peaking in the 20s. The deaths were peaking around age 50. People who may have been employed and in the workforce for 30 years, maybe with the same employer for 20 – suddenly they’re not alive anymore.”

Forces collided in the mid-90s and early 2000s that set the conditions responsible for the rising number of opioid-related deaths in towns and cities across the U.S. And to understand those conditions, it is important to understand the history of the opioid drug family.

Diamorphine is more commonly known as heroin – the name under which it originally was marketed by German pharmaceutical company Bayer as a cough suppressant in the late 1890s and early 1900s. It has a long history of use in medicine, along with the drug it was derived from: morphine. Both morphine and heroin are derivatives of opium, the dried latex produced by the seed pods of the opium poppy, a species of flowering plant.

Opium has been used for centuries

as a recreational drug and in medicine as a sedative and anesthetic. It is the root of multiple families of drug compounds with similar qualities. One such drug family includes morphine and heroin.

Another, codeine, is used frequently in pill form to manage pain in modern

medicine. Codeine is the base material used to create more powerful medications prescribed by doctors, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone.

A synthetic opioid, a powerful drug called fentanyl, was introduced in the mid90s as a slow-release painkiller for people with terminal illnesses such as cancer.

All opioids share similar basic qualities in terms of how they affect human brain chemistry.

Neurotransmitters that are similar in structure to opioids naturally occur in the human body to help manage low-level pain, but the body is unable to produce enough of them naturally to block or relieve severe pain.

When opioids enter the body as a drug, they are similar enough in structure to attach to that type of neurotransmitter’s receptors and send signals to the brain that block pain and produce a calming effect. Because of their difference in structure from the natural neurotransmitter, however, opioids also send different messages to the brain that flood its reward center with dopamine and create a euphoric effect the body would be unable to produce on its own.

The flood of dopamine is the cause of the addiction.

“Most of the heroin (in the past) has

come in out of southeast Asia and Europe and ultimately was so diluted that it was less than 10 percent purity,” said Dr. John Schneider, chief medical officer of the Milwaukee County behavioral health division. “Probably in the 4-to-8 percent range. The only way to use it to get high was to inject it.”

But over the past 20 years, that has changed.

Experts theorize that when the U.S. government cracked down on the cocaine trade in the 1980s and ’90s, targeting the cash crop of drug cartels in South and Central America, the cartels adjusted and began to use their existing distribution networks in the United States to push a different drug: a higher purity heroin.

“It has had a purity of 30 percent to 50 percent in general, and at times has increased to as high as 70 percent,” Schneider said of the heroin available on the streets for recreational use today. “That means you can smoke it; you don’t have to shoot it. There’s lots of other ways to do it. It’s less of a jump for other recreational users to get into.”

To achieve the euphoric high addicts crave, heroin can be snorted, swallowed or smoked. Intravenous injection, which carries with it a strong stigma and the risk of passing serious diseases, such as HIV, is becoming less common, Schreiber said.

External signs of drug abuse on the bodies of those who overdose are now few and far

MILWAUKEE COUNTY OPIOID-RELATED DEATHS 2012: 144

2015: 231

2013: 181

2016: 286

2014: 220 SOURCE: MILWAUKEE COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER’S OFFICE

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between, and the drug’s method of delivery is not always clear to the staff at the medical examiner’s office examining the bodies.

The increase in potency of street opioids has coincided with an increase in the number of people willing to buy them.

Physicians began writing prescriptions for opioids such as hydrocodone and oxycodone more liberally around two decades ago. The trend began out of both a sincere effort from doctors

to better manage pain and a more dubious push from certain pharmaceutical companies to increase sales.

In December 2016, several executives and managers formerly employed by the Arizona-based pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics were arrested on charges they orchestrated a “nationwide conspiracy to bribe medical practitioners to unnecessarily prescribe a fentanylbased pain medication and defraud health care insurers,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice.

A 2016 investigation by the Los Angeles Times found evidence that employees of Purdue Pharma, maker of the brandname opioid painkiller OxyContin, told doctors to prescribe stronger doses of the drug to patients who complained it didn’t last as long as its advertised 12-hour duration, instead of encouraging those doctors to prescribe lower doses at more frequent intervals. This was done in order to protect

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the company’s competitive advantage in the marketplace; having a longer duration of pain relief than its competitors would allow Purdue to charge more for OxyContin. It also was done in spite of the company’s knowledge through various clinical trials that many patients who took the drug did not experience 12 hours of pain relief, according to the investigation.

As a consequence, more people have found themselves accidentally hooked after receiving prescriptions to manage pain caused by things such as workplace injuries or routine surgeries. And when their prescriptions run out

or are no longer strong enough to quiet their urges, they turn to stronger, illegal versions of the drug.

“Liberal prescribing practices in the past, which were supported by large medical organizations and government and big pharma, led to people becoming, in many cases, accidentally dependent on opioids and prescription pain pills,” said Dr. Lance Longo, medical director for addiction services for Aurora Behavioral Health Services. “As the medical community has cracked down in the last few years, and as the government has supported mandates to monitor prescribing and limit liberal prescribing, people who used to be addicted to pills have switched to heroin, which is more readily available and cheaper.”

Addicts use everywhere they can, including at work. Some view it as a performance-enhancing drug that numbs them to the daily grind, reduces anxiety and boosts confidence. But eventually, their initial confidence slides into desperation.

Their behavior becomes more unpredictable as they turn to new – and often illegal – methods to sustain their expensive habits.

Productivity falls. They isolate themselves.

And eventually, if they don’t receive treatment – or if they get clean and relapse – their bodies are found. Their blood is drawn. It is placed in a vial. It is stored in a freezer. It is tested.

Over the past five years, the results of those tests have been staggering. The

medical examiner’s office has determined 1,082 people and counting have died from an opioid-related overdose in Milwaukee County since Jan. 1, 2012.

Local experts believe the worst is yet to come. Over the past 15 years, opioid drugs have changed as dramatically as the people who use them. The most potent and dangerous opioid analogs available on the black market have yet to hit the streets of Milwaukee in force, although some have begun making appearances.

Fentanyl is more powerful than heroin and is increasingly being cut into heroin supplies to increase potency. The consequence: addicts, unaware of the potency, take the same amount they would if it were a lower-potency

heroin and overdose.

Fentanyl was involved in the death of pop music icon Prince in the summer of 2016. Investigators said it was cut into pills at Prince’s home that were labeled as “hydrocodone.”

One analog, perhaps the most potent and dangerous opioid, is called carfentanil. It is many times more powerful than fentanyl. It is not meant for human consumption. The drug is powerful enough to anesthetize elephants. Even small doses of it cannot be survived. It has been slowly making its way inland from the east and west coasts, where it has devastated addict populations.

“Overwhelmingly, we’re seeing a larger increase in the illicit stuff; in the heroin and now in the fentanyl,” said Schreiber at the medical examiner’s office. “Going back maybe four years ago, if we had a heroin case, there was no fentanyl identified and if we had a fentanyl case there was no heroin identified. Two to three years ago, we began to see an increase in incidences of seeing fentanyl in combination with things like heroin. Then we were led to believe, with supporting evidence from crime lab and (Drug Enforcement Administration), that there was fentanyl cut into the heroin. So it was adulterated, likely to increase the potency w w w.biztimes.com

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without increasing the cost.

“The fentanyl numbers from this year over last year increased three-fold over.

And now we’re seeing more fentanyl analogs, like acetyl fentanyl, which are clandestinely prepared. Carfentanil we haven’t identified it yet. For something that has the potency to take down a large animal, the dose has to be so much less in order for somebody to try to survive that.”

ADDICTION IN THE WORKPLACE Employees who are addicted to drugs but have stopped using them illegally and are receiving treatment are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act. If they have been successfully rehabilitated from a past addiction, they cannot be discriminated

against in the workplace.

“But the ADA does allow for employers to maintain a workplace that’s free of drugs and alcohol,” said Jesse Dill, a senior attorney at Walcheske & Luzi LLC in Brookfield who specializes in employment and labor issues.

If an employee is observed by coworkers or superiors behaving in a suspicious way that could indicate drug use in the workplace, he or she can be drug tested. If the employee tests positive, he or she can be fired.

“Situations we see … if somebody’s in a safety position, usually it’s zero tolerance,” Dill said. “With smaller employers and family-operated organizations, if something like this comes up with an employee that doesn’t pose a direct threat to the safety of the public, they’re a little more open to trying to get them some help. It just really depends on the employer’s culture.

“Usually with larger employers, there’s a concern for safety and also consistency.

If it’s ongoing drug use, that isn’t going to

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be protected by the law. The employer can terminate based on current use.”

Dill recommended companies interested in setting up procedures for how to handle drug use in the workplace and drug-addicted employees seek professional help.

“It’s best to make sure you’re following the law and there’s different stages that all have different rules and regulations of what you can and can’t do,” Dill said. “It’s easy to misstep and do something that maybe isn’t lawful unless you’re working with someone who knows what they’re doing in this area.”

He said a common situation in which he sees employers getting tripped up is when an employee is drug tested and the results come back positive, but the employers don’t ask any follow-up questions before firing the employee.

“It usually relates to drugs that can be lawfully prescribed,” Dill said. “They can and should be asking questions: do you have a prescription for a

medication that would trigger a positive drug test? There could be a need to accommodate rather than terminate without question.”

STORIES OF ADDICTION Michelle Laga and John, who has chosen not to reveal his last name, are the same age: 30. They grew up in different places – Michelle is from the Chicago area and John grew up in Grafton – but had similar upbringings. Both were born into moreor-less typical middle-class, Christian families. Both got good grades in school.

And both of their addictions began the same way – with a legal prescription.

In Michelle’s case, the legal prescription wasn’t for her. A friend she had met while attending Northern Illinois University in DeKalb had stolen opioid pills from his grandmother and the two began using them together.

She got hooked. The pills eased some symptoms of psychiatric issues she didn’t realize she had at the time and she liked 19

health care & wellness the effect. Plus, drugs helped her feel like she fit in – something she said she desperately wanted.

As Michelle’s addiction progressed, she began crushing the pills and injecting them intravenously, and eventually moved on to heroin.

Though her drug use set back her ed-

by switching out people and places and things, it would help me get away from everything, but I found that (opioids are) everywhere. Pretty quickly into grad school, I began spiraling.”

She tried to quit multiple times by herself, but wasn’t able to. One night, after returning from a visit to her parents’

her for years. Her friend contacted her parents. Eventually, she went into a residential treatment program in Illinois. Michelle has been clean since March 8, 2011.

She now works as a certified peer specialist at La Causa on Milwaukee’s south side. She assists other addicts, and incorporates her background in art therapy

“ These are the working class. They come from all walks of life, all demographics, all counties, all suburbs.” ucation – it took her six years to get her undergraduate degree in art – she eventually graduated and was accepted into a master’s program at Milwaukee’s Mount Mary University for art therapy.

“I somehow graduated undergrad with my degree in art and minor in psychology,” Michelle said. “I decided to come to Milwaukee for the grad school program at Mount Mary. I thought also

house in Illinois during which she had to rely on ingesting less powerful opioid pills, she picked up heroin from her dealer in Milwaukee. She injected. She was alone, and she passed out immediately.

“I scared myself,” she said. “It could’ve easily turned into an overdose.”

Michelle reached out to a friend and confessed her addiction – she had been hiding her habit from those closest to

into her sessions.

“The programs I am involved in at La Causa, which include Targeted Case Management, Community Linkage and Stabilization Program and the Peer-Run Drop-In Center, are all Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division contracted programs and La Causa and myself are very grateful for that partnership and the opportunities it provides,” she said.

John, who said he had already begun experimenting with alcohol and marijuana as a teen, injured himself while working in a warehouse in his early 20s. He was moving a dumpster outside, it hit a bump in the sidewalk and he sustained a bad sprain in his ankle trying to keep it from falling over.

A doctor prescribed a supply of hydrocodone pills that lasted about a month.

He went back to the same doctor and got another prescription, and another. After his fourth script from that doctor ran out, he said he laid off the pain pills for a while.

“It didn’t turn into a problem then, but at that point I realized I was fascinated by and loved opiates,” John said.

Sometime later, he was playing guitar with a drummer. John was, and still is, in a band. He described his current band’s sound as “Alice in Chains on anti-depressants.” The drummer he was playing with at the time offered him a line of crushed up pain pills to snort. He accepted. The problem began.

“I feel like there are two different kinds of people,” John said. “Either you love

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(opioids) or you hate them. Some people don’t like them. For me, it brought this warmth and euphoria. It felt like all your problems and worries disappeared. That was the initial fascination with it.”

John paused while describing his experience with addiction over the phone.

“It sounds weird to say this, but it almost becomes like a love relationship,” he said. “Like a romance. It consumes your life. It becomes all you care about. You put it before anyone and anything, even your own health and your own safety.”

By age 23, John had resorted to stealing things from his father and selling them to help pay for opioids. He had a job working in manufacturing, but his wages weren’t enough to cover the habit.

He remembers driving down to a specific intersection in Milwaukee – North 14th Street and West Keefe Avenue – to buy drugs from dealers who held guns in their laps.

At one point, he was charged with operating while intoxicated on two consecutive days.

“I’m guilty,” John said. “I was driving around and they got me. But it didn’t stop me.”

Without a license or a car of his own to drive, he stole his dad’s car to drive down to Milwaukee to buy drugs. At one point he got into an accident, totaled his dad’s car and put his head through the windshield.

His dad – tired of being robbed and lied to by his son – gathered evidence and turned John in to the police. John served seven months in jail and still is on probation.

“I was pretty bitter about it because I was still under the influence and all that,” John said. “I was worried about my job, I was dating this girl. We were using partners and codependent on each other. She passed away a few months after I got out of jail. She succumbed to the addiction.”

John has been clean since Nov. 4, 2014.

“I work for a tremendous company that has continued to employ me throughout my addiction,” he said. He declined to name his employer, but said its leaders have taken multiple chances

with him and shown him a tremendous amount of empathy and respect.

He’s been promoted twice since he got clean, he said.

John also now works with the Ozaukee County Heroin Task Force as a consultant.

“I sit on a board with the same judge and prosecutor who prosecuted me,” he said. He also runs a Facebook page for the county and posts advice and information about what people can do to get treatment and help address the local opioid epidemic.

“There’s a ton of stigma,” he said.

“It seems like a lot of people don’t want to talk about addiction because it’s not pretty. I get it. I understand that, and if you want to keep your distance, I get that.

cover story

But some people say things like, ‘stupid junkie, they deserve to die.’

“It’s a mental disease. It affects your behavior. As cliché and stupid as it sounds, if you don’t have anything nice to say, just don’t say it at all.”

John urged employers who encounter employees with drug problems to show them the empathy and respect his company has shown him.

Michelle offered this advice to employers: “Don’t be afraid to ask those hard questions about your employee if you see something that’s off and different. Be sure to have resources available if they do ask for help, and be empathetic and supportive of them, rather than judgmental.” n

TO GET HELP: Wisconsin Area Heroin Anonymous - www.hawisconsin.org/ Heroin Anonymous World Services - www.heroinanonymous.org/

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health care & wellness

Policy choices an important part of drug testing programs

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our human resources department has been searching high and low to find new talent as the region’s job market continues to tighten. They’ve been able to make a number of hires who seem to be good fits. These new employees passed their pre-employment drug screening, they’ve shown up on time every day, you’ve invested time and money in training and it seems you’ve filled a key hole in your workforce.

Then something happens. One of the new hires is involved in a workplace accident. Even though there were no injuries, your policy says those involved have to go for a drug screening. The results come back and your seemingly perfect new hire tests positive for marijuana. What do you do? Does your policy call for zero tolerance and a drug-free workplace? Or do you give the employee a second chance and protect the time and money you’ve invested in recruiting and training?

“It’s actually half and half,” said Debra 22

BY ARTHUR THOMAS, staff writer

Auer of the decision companies make when employees fail a drug test.

Auer is president of Wauwatosa-based Express Drug Screening LLC. She focuses on helping companies with their drug and alcohol policies, while her co-owner, Theretha King, handles the operational side of drug testing for the firm.

While some companies opt to simply terminate employees who fail a drug test, “we’re finding more and more trying to help these people,” Auer said.

The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found 59.5 percent of full-time employees said their employers offered some sort of employee assistance program for drug and alcohol issues. The figure, taken from surveys between 2008 and 2012, was a slight, but significant, increase over the 2003 to 2007 period.

That same report found 81.4 percent of employees were at firms with written policies regarding drug or alcohol use. Auer B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

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says she still comes across plenty of employers who do not have a policy in place.

“I don’t see as much testing done in the white collar fields as there should be,” King said, adding she has seen cases where 25 percent of a white collar workforce tested positive when companies initiated drug testing policies.

Auer said in one case, Express Drug Screening did testing on an entire car dealership, from the general manager on down. Thirty percent of the initial tests were positive, with finance managers and higher level office employees among those testing positive. The percentages also declined as the testing went on throughout the year.

She said putting a drug testing program in place can help a company reduce turnover, absenteeism, risks and workers’ compensation claims.

But there’s a difference between having a testing program and having the right one. King said she highly recommends

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putting post-accident testing in place “for the simple reason that individuals can clean themselves up for a pre-employment test.”

“Any charges or anything to do with the policy needs to be reviewed by an attorney,” Auer said.

In addition to pre-employment and post-accident, employers might also consider testing based on reasonable cause or suspicion, random testing and follow-up tests, in some circumstances. King said employers should also consider whether they will do a five-panel test that covers marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates and phencyclidine or PCP, or a 10-panel test that covers those drugs and other prescription drugs, too.

Auer said the most common positive result is for marijuana. Surveys by SAMHSA estimate roughly 13 percent of those ages 12 to 17 have used the drug in the past year, rising to around 32 percent for those between the ages of 18 and 25 before falling to 10 percent for those 26 and older. The percentages are similar for Wisconsin.

She also said in her experience, prescription drugs have become the second most common positive result, overtaking cocaine. The SAMHSA survey estimates 6 percent of those 12 to 17 have misused prescription psychotherapeutic drugs in the past year. That figure rises to 15 percent for 18 to 25 year olds and returns to roughly 6 percent for those over 26.

Overall, 36 percent of respondents reported using pain relievers for any purpose, including 4.7 percent who said they misused the drugs.

Paul Secunda, Marquette University Law School professor and director of the labor and employment law program, said it is important to distinguish between employment with the government and with the private sector when it comes to drug testing, noting the former can have certain constitutional considerations.

“When you’re dealing with an employee-employer relationship, you’re dealing with a private interaction,” Secunda said.

Many of the legal challenges to drug testing in the private sector have to do with wrongdoing or privacy, he said.

When it comes to privacy, any intrusion would have to be highly offensive to a reasonable person.

Secunda said companies do need to be concerned with how test samples are collected and limit who can see the results to human resources staff and other officers.

U.S. drug use 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

12 - 17

18 - 25

26+

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Marijuana use in past year Marijuana use in past month Misuse of prescription psychotherapeutic drugs in past year Cocaine use in past year Heroin use in past year Source: SAMHSA National Survey on Drug Use and Health

“They’re treated with a good amount of confidentially,” he said.

The test also has to be focused on discovering drug use and can’t be used as a fishing expedition to detect other diseases that might alter an employer’s view of the employee.

“Besides that, the general law for the private sector is that employers are able to test for drugs,” Secunda said.

But even though the law gives employers a lot of freedom when it comes to testing, Secunda said it is important to have a policy in place.

“You’re basically opening yourself up to employment discrimination claims,” he said of employers testing without a policy in place.

While some states have laws in place for how drug testing is to be handled, Wisconsin does not. The state does have statutes requiring companies working on public works or utility projects to have written substance abuse prevention policies in place, including random, reasonable suspicion and post-accident drug and alcohol testing.

Though employers have freedom in developing their policies, the application of those policies can potentially cause problems if a former employee seeks unemployment benefits after being fired for misconduct.

State law says misconduct includes admitting to using controlled substances, refusing to take a test or testing positive.

For example, the Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission has found there’s a difference between a refusal and an inability to comply with the testing requirements.

In one 2013 case, a former Oshkosh City Cab Co. employee was too dehydrated to provide a sample. LIRC upheld a decision awarding the woman unemployment benefits, noting other cases where the distinction applied.

The commission found no misconduct in cases in which an employee couldn’t reach a testing site before it closed because of child care issues, when the employee couldn’t locate an open testing facility and when the employee was unable to get a ride until the next day.

In a worker’s compensation case, an employee took a Tylenol 3 pill for pain and inflammation after injuring his ankle. He was treated at an urgent care facility and given work restrictions. After taking those to his employer and telling his manager he’d taken Tylenol 3, he was told to take a drug test, which came back positive for codeine. The man was fired without any investigation into the positive result, which the commission determined was “not fair, just or fit under the circumstances.”

“The applicant’s explanation for what occurred in this matter is entirely credible, it is effectively unrebutted by the employer, and the credible facts do not provide a reasonable basis for his discharge,” the commission noted. n w w w.biztimes.com

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Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Milwaukee May 6, 2017 | Walk - 10 a.m.

Join us for the American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk to help save lives, celebrate survivors, and honor loved ones.

MakingStridesWalk.org/MilwaukeeWI 1.800.227.2345 ©2017, American Cancer Society, Inc.

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health care & wellness

Wellness Summit offers tips to make employees happier

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hree speakers at the BizTimes Media Wellness Summit, a breakfast event held on Friday, March 17, at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee, spoke about how companies can boost employee performance while making them happier and healthier.

The speakers were Eliz Green, a job stress researcher and motivational wellness speaker; Dr. Jerry Halverson, medical director for Rogers Memorial HospitalOconomowoc and the FOCUS Adult Mood Disorders Program; and Dr. John Brill, director of medical operations for The Aurora Network.

The theme of Green’s talk was “What’s missing from your wellness program?”

BY BEN STANLEY, staff writer

Over the past year-and-a-half, Green has been researching the causes of on-the-job stress. She said she originally approached her research with the idea in mind that most employees who were stressed on the job had an out-of-whack work-life balance. Her goal was to pinpoint a sweet spot that would reduce employee stress.

But what her research revealed was much different than what she anticipated.

The No. 1 cause of stress wasn’t work-life balance issues, but miscommunications between managers and staff regarding productivity and accuracy expectations.

Green said she studied many companies going through periods of transition, such as blending staffs after an acquisi-

tion, where the problem was pronounced.

She found employees who were forced to change their routines and the types of programs and technologies they were using as a result of the transition had elevated stress levels.

“Any time you change a technology, there’s a learning curve,” Green said. “But people are left to feel they don’t have time to adjust to that new technology because they’re being judged and they might be fired.”

Even though most managers tell their employees they understand it will take them a few weeks or months to get used to the new systems being implemented when it is first launched, unless that mes-

sage is repeated consistently for a long period of time, employees fall victim to paranoia, Green said.

“You can have all kinds of wellness initiatives, but if the messaging isn’t consistent from the top down, it doesn’t matter,” she said.

Brill’s talk centered around three ma-

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M AY 24 ,2 01 7

BUSINESS STRATEGY SEMINARS

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Halverson

jor and common health problems among employees: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Brill said those three health complications are major drivers of employer health care costs.

He emphasized the importance of implementing office health and wellness programs to keep employees at risk for the diseases in the “pre stages.” By that, he meant encouraging healthy eating and exercise habits among employees so their pre-diabetes, for example, never turns into full-blown diabetes. Not only is this strategy better for the overall health of employees, but it also can greatly reduce company health care costs.

Brill recommended company leaders do things such as get rid of the soda machine, or replace sugary drinks with sparkling or flavored water. He also recommended small changes that promote more physical activity throughout the day, such as putting up signs to signify where the staircase is to encourage employees to march up to the office instead of taking the elevator.

And Halverson discussed the importance of good mental health in the workplace. Poor mental health can manifest

Brill

itself at work in absenteeism and presenteeism (being at work but not fully functioning due to symptoms).

“They can also lead to irritability, which can cause trouble with your team working together and it also can cause increased substance use, which can cause a lot of the same issues the mental health issues do,” he said.

Workplace mental health issues are very common. Among the mental health challenges employers commonly face are depression, anxiety and substance use.

Employers can battle these issues proactively by creating a mentally healthy workplace encouraging camaraderie and teamwork, Halverson said.

Employers can play an important role in helping the employee get the help he or she needs, so both parties can achieve their goal – getting the employee back to work.

“Obviously, you can communicate with the employee but there are certainly ways to do it that are more accepting and other ways to do it that feel more stigmatizing,” Halverson said. “Have this conversation. But you have to have it in a certain way.” n

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HOW TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH CLEAR MESSAGING & DIGITAL MARKETING Richie Burke, founder & president, GoGeddit

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THREE LOW COST STRATEGIES FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Andrew Marris, learning and development manager, MRA

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strategies Innovation...ideas…dreams Foster creativity in your organization

A

ll company value originates with unique ideas, dreams, innovation or research and development.

All businesses grew out of an idea, conversation or desire to improve existing services. Throughout the life of a business, changes in the company are also the product of ideas or dreams.

The business may have entered a new market, created a new product, applied a new strategy, hired new employees or employed new technologies. At the heart of all business value is the initial idea or dream.

What is the significance to us? For your business to increase its value, it must harness creativity and innovation in a way that permits the creation of new ideas to be a regular process.

Two major forms of innovation occur: strategic and tactical. Both can be planned or spontaneous. Continuous improvement efforts typically result in important gains. But they’re rarely the type of innovations that will change the business.

How to support creativity and innovation What’s the best way to foster creativity, innovation or continuous improvement in a business? The organization must support the creative efforts of its employees at all levels. One of the best ways is to establish an organizational value that supports creativity and is supported by top management.

Other successful techniques to increase innovation: »» Turn creativity into a game. Add typical elements of game playing to the creativity process. »» Support anyone who questions current practices. »» When new ideas fail, recognize and accept failure as an ongoing process toward improvement. One approach I use when something goes wrong incorporates these five questions: What happened? Why did it happen?

What was the effect of the incident?

What did we learn? What will we do differently? »» The business environment must stimulate creativity. I’m a TEC chair and lead peer groups of CEOs. Sometimes, the meeting table will have small handheld objects such as balls, stress relievers or toys for members to handle during the discussions. It combines a tactile experience with the discussion at hand. »» Make sure there are ideas from different areas of the organization.

Consider involving other stakeholders who can produce unique insights. »» Consider buying software to help with brainstorming. Mindmapping software visualizes graphical relationships between ideas and concepts. »» Respect different types of intelligence.

Howard Gardner of Harvard is cred-

TOP REASONS TO EXHIBIT AT THE 13TH ANNUAL

ited with identifying eight types of intelligence. They are musical-rhythmic, visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic. If a company wants the widest diversity in the formation of ideas and innovations, it should involve employees who have a variety of intelligences. »» In some cases, it might be more productive to restrict the scope of innovation or creative thinking. If there are too many “blue sky” concepts, overall productivity might suffer.

However, keep in mind that restricting the creative process can also result in missing breakthrough ideas. »» When employees create an innovation or new approach that benefits the company, reward those responsible for it. This will motivate people to find more ways to help.

Make creativity part of the job Consider adding the creation of new ideas to individual job descriptions. Then manage and measure the ideas generated.

Be aware of practices that kill innovation. When top management thinks brainstorming is a futile exercise, new ideas won’t surface.

Policy and procedures can also impede new ideas. For example, businesses rely on compliance and controls. It may

Shorten your sales cycle…meet your next customers face to face

JIM LINDELL INNOVATION be difficult for someone steeped in controls to understand alternative processes that generate the same assurances with less effort. There could also be an inappropriate short-term focus on profitability, so creative tasks and meetings that don’t have specific outcomes may be viewed as wasted efforts. An organization that punishes failure will create a culture that reduces risk and as a byproduct, will reduce new ideas or concepts.

Another concern is “do not upset the apple cart.” This can occur when current operations are going fine and there's no point in looking at new ventures.

If your business is to grow and flourish in the long run, you must support people who suggest ideas that will innovate. n

Jim Lindell is a CPA, a chartered global management accountant and a certified speaking professional. He is president of Dousman-based Thorsten Consulting Group, Inc., which provides strategic and financial consulting, professional speaking, training and executive coaching.

He has worked with a variety of industries and chairs two groups for TEC Wisconsin.

Meet hundreds of business owners who attend specifically to find ways to run better businesses

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strategies

Break the stalemate The hunt for common ground

H

as your organization ever been caught up in a stalemate?

It could be a deadlock between union and management. It could be that some issue has split the senior management team. It could be that half of your employees are in favor of moving the headquarters to another state and the other half are appalled (take my kids out of their school?!). It could be a branding change.

It could be almost anything. If enough of your associates care – really care – about

about why I’m supporting Plan A.” Unfortunately, the whole drama soon leaks outside of the walls of your organization. Family members usually hear about it, probably ad nauseum. Favorite customers often are taken into confidence and told the nitty gritty details (shaped by bias, of course). Vendors as well. It is amazing how fast the news of this tense stalemate takes on a life of its own.

And none of this is good for the health of your organization.

this is my company, (department or team), what the heck am I going to do about this? How am I going to manage this huge conflict?”

First of all, you must not play in the game. You must be up in the control booth or on the sidelines. Once you take sides, you’ve just added four new layers of drama. So put your hands flatly on your desk and listen with respect. Do not align yourself with either side. Keep your dignity and your own counsel.

“We are more alert to detecting differences in others than things in common.” the issue, a simple difference of opinion can escalate into “us and them.”

Once that happens, it begins to suck up a lot of energy and financial resources.

Long-term relationships between team members can be tossed aside. Time and attention get diverted from usual responsibilities into intense conversations about the divide. Everyone gets involved in building a case for why his or her side is right. Recruitment goes on. “Let’s meet for lunch tomorrow; I can tell you more

The underpinnings of all this contentious behavior are as old as man. We seem to have a special warning system within us for differences. We are more alert to detecting differences in others than things in common. It’s a tribal thing and survivalrelated, no doubt. We may even get an adrenaline rush as a result of the deadlock and all the fallout from it. Some may simply like getting caught up in the distraction from usual responsibilities.

So your bedtime story may be “OK,

Build your brand as new customers discover you Conduct real business on the show floor

Your job is to lead all of these folks back to common ground. You must answer the questions, “What do they care about more than they care about this issue? How can I inspire them to see the big picture, that this rift is threatening the success of the organization and thus, their own success? How can I motivate them to listen to each other, rather than batting their prejudices back and forth?

There are people in the business, so you could always hire a conflict manage-

JO GO R IS S EN MANAGEMENT ment consultant. But I’m hoping you already have the trust of your employees, so the most efficient thing is to do it yourself.

It is an opportunity for your own professional growth, and certainly a situation in which you can deepen the trust and respect you have earned so far.

Take a long walk and begin building a plan. You want to move them onto the same side of the issue, using bits and pieces of their arguments to fashion a resolution. You will need to remind them of the common ground and the benefits of spending time there. There may be a few strays who do not care about the success of the organization or even their own success within it. Good to know – and you can help them make an appropriate exit plan. Those few may well be the ones who ignited the conflict and kept kindling the fight.

It is a hefty challenge and you will end up with a powerful leadership skill that will be yours forever more. n

Jo Gorissen is a certified transition coach and a former Milwaukee-area resident. She can be reached at jgorissen1@gmail.com.

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strategies

Keep an even keel

Emotions can impact your decisions

D

o you find that your emotions sometimes rule and influence your decision in a negotiation? If your answer is yes, you are not alone. Just tune your television to the History channel and watch the professionals at “Counting Cars,” “Pawn Stars” and “American Pickers” struggle to control their emotions when negotiating.

Danny Koker, the star of “Counting Cars,” lets his emotions rule when considering buying a car or motorcycle to customize and flip. There are times he has been known to chase down a prospective seller on the street and ask to see his car or motorcycle. His passion for certain types of cars is a weakness and leaves him vulnerable to potentially overpaying the seller

in order to close the deal. By showing his hand early, he puts himself at a disadvantage. In some cases, it takes Koker’s business manager stating, “We are in business to make money,” and counseling him for Koker to adjust his expectations or find another potential deal, his BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement).

Here are a number of strategies to be considered that would neutralize the emotional impact and help you manage the emotional component in a negotiation. »» Remain emotionally neutral when possible. »» Determine the “line in the sand” prior to the negotiation, your WATNA (worst alternative to a negotiated agreement).

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PHOTO CREDIT: SMALLZ & RASKIND / HISTORY

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»» Consulting with an independent expert can assist in breaking a deadlock. »» When you encounter an impasse, take C A RY S ILVER S TEIN a break or move on to another topic. »» Develop other options in advance, NEGOTIATIONS your BATNAs. The History channel provides us with some other examples: cases, they determine that the emotional When watching “Pawn Stars,” there connection is too strong and move on to are times when Rick Harrison, the own- another item. Once they “break the ice” er of the pawn shop, states, “If that is an and get the seller to relinquish an item that original, it could be worth a great deal of does not have an emotional value, they remoney.” This type of response exposes visit the earlier item, hoping that they can Rick’s hand and influences the seller’s convince the seller to adjust the original view of the item’s value. The seller now is price. As with the “Pawn Stars,” Mike and emotionally charged, believing he or she Frank call upon experts to ascertain a true has hit the jackpot. When Rick invites in value and minimize the influence of their an expert to assign a value to the item, the personal feelings. In some instances, the seller hears the retail value and perceives expert’s opinion not only establishes a rethat is the price the buyer will pay. Now, alistic price range, but also aids in breaking the challenge for Rick is to convince the the seller’s emotional connection. seller he or she needs to adjust his or her These are three examples of how emoexpectations. Rick will explain why his tion can interfere with the successful conoffer is reasonable based on what he can clusion of a negotiation. Being aware of resell the item for in his shop. your emotions and developing strategies Mike Wolfe of “American Pickers” has to minimize their impact will provide you encountered times when he or his part- with a level of comfort in an emotionally ner, Frank Fritz, discover a hidden gem in charged situation. n someone’s barn, trailer or garage and develop an emotional attachment to the item. Cary Silverstein, MBA, is a writer, speaker and community volunteer who splits his time between Scottsdale, More than once, they have overpaid for an Arizona and Fox Point. He is the co-author of the book antique Lionel train set or a 1930s Ford “Overcoming Your NegotiaPhobia,” and can be reached at or Plymouth car. Their decision-making (414) 403-2942. process was influenced by their emotions and they crossed the line in the sand, their WATNA. The level of emotional attachment also influences the seller’s perception of an item’s value. Because of this, the seller sets a value above the market price. In fact, many times the price is at the retail value.

Now, Mike or Frank is challenged to convince the seller his or her perception of the value Danny Koker is the star of the History channel show “Counting Cars.” is too high. In some

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biz connections CA L E NDAR

NONPROFIT DIRECTORY

The Paranet Group will host 11 Ways Millennials Bring Measurable Value on Wednesday, March 22, from 7:30 to 11 a.m. at its headquarters, 10000 Innovation Drive in Wauwatosa. Scott Seroka of Seroka Brand Development and Consulting will provide insights on how businesses can benefit from understanding and working with this motivated and intelligent generation. The event is free for Paranet members and $79 for non-members. For more information or to register, visit http://conta.cc/2ltqa1O.

SPOTLIGHT

MRA will host Diversity and Inclusion Leadership on Thursday, April 6, from 7:30 a.m. to noon at the Harley-Davidson Museum, 400 W. Canal St. in Milwaukee. Capt. Ron Johnson, Missouri State Highway Patrol, who was appointed to lead the protest security in Ferguson, Missouri, following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, Jr., will speak about leadership in times of crisis. Diversity and inclusion executives from Oshkosh Corp., Johnson Controls International plc, Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, Rockwell Automation Inc. and the Milwaukee Center for Independence also will speak. Cost is $100. Net proceeds will go to Milwaukee Boys and Girls Clubs and United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha County. For more information or to register, visit http://bit.ly/2mqr4LT.

Future Urban Leaders Foundation

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce will host Madison Night in Milwaukee on Wednesday, April 19, from 5 to 7 p.m. at WEC Energy Group, 231 W. Michigan St. in Milwaukee. This reception, which typically draws more than 300 people, will highlight the contributions of the Milwaukee region to the economic strength and vitality of the state. Meet and mingle with elected officials and fellow MMAC members. Cost is $10. For more information or to register, visit web.mmac.org/events.

See the complete calendar of upcoming events & meetings.

BIZ NO T ES CCB Technology Racine-based CCB Technology has been named, for the second year in a row, to the Managed Service Provider 500 list in the MSP Elite 150 category by CRN, a brand of The Channel Co. This annual list recognizes North American solution providers with cutting-edge approaches to delivering managed services. The CRN list has three categories: the MSP Elite 150, recognizing large, data center-focused MSPs with a strong mix of on-premise and off-premise services; the MSP Pioneer 250, for companies with business models weighted toward managed services and largely focused on the SMB market; and the Managed Security 100, recognizing MSPs focused primarily on off-premise, cloud-based security services. CCB has provided technology solutions to businesses and nonprofits across the U.S. for 26 years.

Five O’Clock Steakhouse Milwaukee's Five O'Clock Steakhouse was named among the top steakhouses in the U.S. and No. 1 steakhouse in Wisconsin by Tasting Table, a premier culinary website and news publication.

Deemed "The United Steaks of America," the Tasting Table editors carefully curated a list of the top steakhouses from 51 states and Five O'Clock Steakhouse rose above in Wisconsin steakhouses.

Five O’ Clock Steakhouse, formerly Coerper’s Five O’ Clock Club, has been a family-owned and independently operated Milwaukee staple since 1946.

Marquette University Kristina Ropella, Opus dean of engineering at

www.biztimes.com

Marquette University, has received a pair of honors. Ropella has been awarded the 2016 Outstanding Dean Award from The Kern Family Foundation, and has been named 2016 Engineer of the Year by STEM Forward. The Outstanding Dean Award was presented at the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network National Conference in Jacksonville, Florida. Marquette is one of 29 partner institutions in KEEN collaborating to develop best practices in engineering education and to champion the entrepreneurial mindset in undergraduate engineering students. STEM Forward presented the 2016 Engineer of the Year award to Ropella during its annual Engineers Week Banquet in February in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee-based nonprofit organization cited Ropella for focusing her research and teaching career on biosignal processing, bioinstrumentation and medical imaging. It also lauded her for developing clinical applications of functional magnetic resonance imaging, including presurgical planning and evaluation of rehabilitative outcomes after injury or pathology.

Mount Mary University Mount Mary University’s Counseling Department has received the Innovative Counselor Education Program Award from the 13-state North Central Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Mount Mary was chosen due to a number of factors that make its counseling program particularly outstanding, innovative and unique: trauma-focused counseling; student-centered; focus on diversity; and experiential learning.

P.O. Box 511073, Milwaukee (262) 385-1752; (414) 534-2246 | www.futureurbanleaders.org Social media channels: Facebook and LinkedIn Year founded: 2015 Mission statement: Future Urban Leaders aims to provide underserved Milwaukee youth with opportunities to grow into young leaders through the four pillars of: academic support, mentorship, health and wellness, and community engagement.

Primary focus: Our primary focus is setting up our students for success both in the classroom and in life so they can become leaders of their community in the future. We mentor students through an after-school program, weekend events and community initiatives. FUL also helps with the rigorous high school application process and follows its students through high school and on to college. Most of our 60+ scholars are currently sixth- to ninth-graders, but we will continue to add grade levels as our first group continues through high school.

Employees at this location: Currently, there are zero paid employees. We are looking to add two this quarter (executive director and office manager). The majority of our organization consists of volunteers. There are more than 15 volunteers and teachers who contribute their time on a weekly basis.

Key donors: Gale Family Foundation, Shepard Foundation, Patrick and Catherine Coughlin Memorial Fund & Brittainy Cherry (local author).

Executive leadership: We are currently recruiting an executive director to assist in developing our organization into the distinct operational bodies of the board of directors and volunteers. In addition to the executive director, our leadership team includes successful teachers from our home base

To have your business briefs published in a future issue of BizTimes Milwaukee send announcements to briefs@biztimes.com. w w w.biztimes.com

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at Milwaukee College Prep and mentors from other Milwaukee-area schools.

Board of directors: Ross Romenesko and Brandon Vonck are the cofounders of the organization.

Ross currently runs the day-to-day operations (program director) and serves as the vice president on the board. He is also a teacher at Milwaukee College Prep, which is where the after-school program currently operates weekly, with more than 40 MCP scholars in attendance each week. Brandon is the board president and professionally works as a finance director for a Berkshire subsidiary in Chicago.

Additional board members include Nasif Rogers, LaChrissa Spriggs, Anthony Brown, Alex Prodoehl, Tina Romenesko, Adam Krueger and Emily Ventola.

Is your organization actively seeking board members for the upcoming term? Yes What roles are you looking to fill? We are looking to add board members that have business backgrounds, nonprofit experience and people willing to assist getting in on the grassroots with an organization in its infancy that makes a real impact on the community.

Ways the business community can help your nonprofit: Sponsoring student scholarships, summer camps or events (museum trips, field trips to the capitol, etc.). We are also looking to partner with key businesses for financial services, board development and fundraising initiatives.

Key fundraising events: »» May - FUL Meet & Greet »» August - Community Picnic »» December - Holiday Gala 2017

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biz connections PER SO NNE L F I L E Dan Dettlaff has joined

■ Architecture

Pamperin

the Financial Solutions Group Wealth & Risk Management Services Agency, Milwaukee, as a financial services professional. For the past 23 years, Dettlaff has grown his practice with Guardian Life and Park Avenue Securities. He had also taken on the role of managing director at Guardian Life.

Lacke Groth Design Group, Cedarburg, has hired Nathan Pamperin, project manager, Jennifer Lacke, marketing director and Katie Valind, interior designer.

Valind

Submit new hire and promotion announcements to www.biztimes.com/submit/the-bubbler

Waukesha State Bank has added Anselmo Villarreal to its board of directors. Villarreal has been president and chief executive officer of La Casa de Esperanza Inc. since 1994 and has been employed with La Casa since 1990.

■ Education Saj Thachenkary has

■ Banking & Finance

been named executive director of marketing and community engagement at Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Prairie Financial Group, a division of Waukesha State Bank, has promoted Stephen Zimmel to vice president-senior trust administrator; and has promoted Michele Young to vice president-senior trust administrator.

■ Hospitality Ryan St. Peter has joined the Marcus Hotels & Resorts sales team as account manager. In his new role, he will be responsible for growing revenue in specialty markets, including social, military, education, religious, fraternal and LGBTQ for the company’s three Milwaukee properties: Hilton Milwaukee City Center, InterContinental Milwaukee and The Pfister Hotel.

ager to web services director. Additionally, Jody Jozwowski has joined the company as production artist and Mary Hacker has joined the company as a project manager.

Scherer

■ Legal Milwaukee labor and employment law firm Lindner & Marsack announced the advancement of Daniel Finerty to equity partner.

Finerty joined Lindner & Marsack in 2012.

■ Marketing & Public Relations EPIC Creative, West Bend, has promoted Greg Kellerman from web department man-

Hoffman

Opperman Paragon Marketing Group, Oconomowoc, has hired Michelle Scherer as account manager, Emma Opperman as graphic and web designer, and Ray Hoffman as senior director.

The Dieringer Research Group, Brookfield, welcomed Jill Carnick, who has joined the company as an account director.

MMAC’s WORLD TRADE ASSOCIATION presents the

Wisconsin International Trade Conference Trade in Times of Change

THURSDAY, MAY 11, 2017

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www.WisconsinTradeConference.org 7:30 am - 5:00 PM | Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee | WTA/MMAC member: $175, Non-member: $200

Gold Sponsor:

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Contact Karen Powell at 414/287.4166

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biz connections

n GLANCE AT YESTERYEAR VOLUME 22, NUMBER 26 MARCH 20 - APRIL 2, 2017 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120 PHONE: 414-277-8181 Fax: 414-277-8191 WEBSITE: www.biztimes.com CIRCULATION E-MAIL: circulation@biztimes.com ADVERTISING E-MAIL: ads@biztimes.com EDITORIAL E-MAIL: andrew.weiland@biztimes.com REPRINTS: reprints@biztimes.com PUBLISHER / OWNER

Dan Meyer dan.meyer@biztimes.com DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Mary Ernst mary.ernst@biztimes.com DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

Jon Anne Willow jonanne.willow@biztimes.com

EDITORIAL

DIRECTOR OF SALES

Linda Crawford linda.crawford@biztimes.com BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE

Maribeth Lynch mb.lynch@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Molly Lawrence molly.lawrence@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

EDITOR

Andrew Weiland andrew.weiland@biztimes.com MANAGING EDITOR

Molly Dill molly.dill@biztimes.com REPORTER

Corrinne Hess corri.hess@biztimes.com REPORTER

Arthur Thomas arthur.thomas@biztimes.com REPORTER

Ben Stanley ben.stanley@biztimes.com INTERN REPORTER

Maredithe Meyer maredithe.meyer@biztimes.com

State Fair Park tornado

SALES & MARKETING

Maggie Pinnt maggie.pinnt@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Christie Ubl christie.ubl@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Lena Tomaszek lena.tomaszek@biztimes.com SALES INTERN

Salimah Muhammad salimah.muhammad@biztimes.com

PRODUCTION & DESIGN GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Alex Schneider alex.schneider@biztimes.com ART DIRECTOR

Shelly Tabor shelly.tabor@biztimes.com

This photo shows the destruction of a tornado that swept through the grounds of State Fair Park in West Allis on May 31, 1914.

The Wisconsin State Fair was first held in 1851 in Janesville, but has been in its current home at State Fair Park since 1892.

— This photo is from the Milwaukee Public Museum’s Photo Archives collection.

Additional images can be viewed online at www.mpm.edu.

Independent & Locally Owned — Founded 1995 —

COMME NTA R Y

Move public museum next to new arena

I

n need of a major facility upgrade, Milwaukee Public Museum officials are seriously considering moving the museum to a new downtown location. No specific plans have been established and it will likely take about 10 years to pull it off.

This will be an utterly fascinating and important civic project for Milwaukee.

Just imagine how difficult and expensive it will be to move the museum’s collections to a new facility.

Many of us who grew up in the Mil-

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waukee area are nostalgic about the museum and have cherished childhood memories of our visits there. So there will be tremendous scrutiny of what happens to it. The museum has fantastic dioramas.

What happens to them if the museum relocates? Can those be re-created in a new location?

On the other hand, much of the museum, which opened in its current location in 1963, feels dated and is in need of modernization to appeal to today’s visitors. A new building could do the trick.

The museum’s current location at 800 W. Wells St., between the Milwaukee County Courthouse and the downtown State Office Building, also lacks appeal for visitors. There’s nowhere to eat and not much to do nearby. A more interesting location could help make the museum more attractive.

So where should the new museum be located? Some will no doubt lobby for the B i zT i m e s M i l w a u k e e

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lakefront, where a museum campus could be created with the Milwaukee Art Museum, Discovery World, the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum and the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center.

Another possibility is West Wisconsin Avenue. Perhaps it could be part of a major development at the still-vacant but crucial site at North Fourth Street.

But the best option would be next to the new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks, on the current site of the BMO Harris Bradley Center. That’s only about three blocks northeast of the current museum location, but it would be a much more active and interesting area for visitors. The Bucks ownership wants to create a vibrant, mixed-use district around the arena and they want to attract visitors yearround, even on days when the arena is not in use. The museum, which attracts more than 500,000 visitors annually, could help.

The cost of the project will be enor-

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ANDREW WEILAND Editor BizTimes Milwaukee

mous, and it will be vital to have a worldclass design. That will only add to the cost but would be a huge benefit to the museum. Just look at what Santiago Calatrava’s design did for the Milwaukee Art Museum.

It will take a massive private fundraising effort to pay for this project. That will be a significant challenge in a community with other competing civic projects, including the Lakefront Gateway Plaza and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Warner Grand Theatre renovation.

Maybe the Bucks’ billionaire owners could help out, especially if they would like to include the Milwaukee Public Museum as part of the arena district.

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biz connections

Schenck Real Estate Forum Schenck SC recently hosted “2017 Real Estate Forum: Transforming your Playbook for Change” at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. The event featured Peter Feigin, president of the Milwaukee Bucks and Ed Policy, vice president and general counsel of the Green Bay Packers, who discussed the building projects in and around Lambeau Field and the new Bucks arena.

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Karin Gale and Joe Schirger, both of Schenck.

2 Peter Langhoff of CBRE and Douglas Brown of Bankers’ Bank.

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3 Heather Baylor and John Griffith, both of Park Bank, and Heather Nelson of Spring Bank.

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4 Karen and Jim Haertel, both of Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery.

5 Mark Vance of Schenck and Mark McBride of Murphy Energy Systems.

6 Joe Jannazzo, Daniel Ward and Pam Taylor, all of Country Financial.

7 Frank Windt of Schenck and Stephen Rothe of U.S. Bank.

8 John Kent and Roy Konrath, both of Royrack LLC, and Jan Grimm and Wendy Sowinski, both of Ixonia Bank.

9 Peter Feigin, president of the Milwaukee Bucks and Ed Policy, vice president and general counsel of the Green Bay Packers, answer questions from event attendees.

Photos by Maredithe Meyer

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ERICH SCHROEDER PHOTOGRAPHY

the last word

Encourage students to consider the trades As president of a general contracting, construction management and consulting firm, Craig Coursin has seen the shortage of skilled trades workers in his line of work. Leaders must encourage more students to consider these careers, he says.

“The skilled trades gap is a huge opportunity! The gap is real. We are already at dangerously low levels of our skilled workforce. College for everyone should not be our mission. We can play an active role to solve this by raising the awareness of our youth. If they show a passion for making things and working with their hands, the trades could be a perfect option. The education system stresses college, but the current goal of 100 percent college-bound is not realistic. We need balance.

“A student going into the trades directly from high 34

school eliminates college debt while learning and earning a decent salary–a financial win. He or she is way ahead of someone who gets a college degree and then struggles to find a job. Long-range, this worker can learn a trade, get a business degree and own a business – what a fantastic path.

“Mike Rowe, host of the show ‘Dirty Jobs’ and master carpenter, and Norm Abram from the show ‘This Old House,’ have recently joined forces to promote the trades.

They are producing fantastic video stories telling why they choose that career. We can all take an active role and

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Craig Coursin President Stier Construction Inc. N8 W22195 Johnson Drive, Suite 160, Waukesha Industry: Construction Employees: 15

tell someone close to us to think about a career as a carpenter, electrician, plumber, HVAC, mason, etc. All are very honorable professions. Our job is to offer encouragement to any interested person that the trades are an excellent career option. It is up to us to be the solution; you have the power to be an important mentor.” n

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